


Before and After

by DarkQueenSigyn



Category: Hostel (Movies)
Genre: Blood, Branches into AU territory, Domestic arguing, F/M, Mild Homophobia (I Think), Murder, Non-Graphic Violence, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Pre- and Post- First Movie, Profanity, References to the events of the first film, Reinterpretation of the Second Movie, Two Messed Up People Being Messed Up, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-29
Updated: 2017-01-06
Packaged: 2018-09-13 05:32:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,320
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9108637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkQueenSigyn/pseuds/DarkQueenSigyn
Summary: How Paxton and Stephanie broke up, and how they got back together...and how they broke up again.





	1. Chapter 1

“What the fuck is your problem?”

Paxton sighed. He could practically see Stephanie in his mind’s eye even before he turned to face her; in her trademark ‘not happy with you’ stance. Head tilted, brow furrowed, arms folded, hip cocked. And from the looks of that frown he was in particularly deep shit for something.

“Me, problem?” he asked, completely calm. “I don’t, I don’t have a problem. Okay? What about you, have you got a problem?”

“Uh, yeah,” Steph retorted, as if it were obvious. 

There was a pause, and Pax gestured vaguely at the air. “Mind telling me what it is?”

“Yeah, it’s you,” Steph stated bluntly. “You’re my problem.”

How did he see that coming? 

“Um, oh-kay,” he mused, sounding incredulous. “Dare I ask exactly what the fuck I did this time?”

“Are you being serious right now?”

“Yes!! Despite what you seem to think, I can’t read your mind, babe.”

Steph breathed a heavy sigh and rolled her eyes, and it was the type of eyeroll that Pax could recognize as the opening of the floodgates. He almost felt the need to physically brace himself for what was coming.

“You gave the other ticket to Josh?”

“Oh my fucking…who told you?”

“Rose did.”

“Ro– what?!” Paxton shook his head in disbelief. Betrayed by his own sister?!

“She assumed I already knew, I didn’t correct her,” Steph elaborated.

“I was gonna tell you!” Pax insisted, lifting both hands in defeat. “I was, I swear to God I was.”

“Oh, you were, were you? When?”

“Today!” Paxton exclaimed, inwardly thanking that first year English class for giving him the ability to bullshit at the speed of sound. “I was gonna make you dinner!”

“To tell me you got tickets to Paris, France, and you gave the other ticket to your best friend and not me?”

“Well, you know, break it to you gently and all.”

“Paxton!!”

“What?! Do you want me to apologize? Cause I would, but I’m not particularly sorry!”

“Excuse me?” Steph challenged, putting her hands on her hips. “Why not?”

“Because I knew you were gonna do this,” Paxton admitted with a huff. “I fucking knew, okay? And if I’m gonna go to France, I’m gonna do it with somebody who isn’t gonna want to strangle me at the drop of a hat!”

“And that’s suddenly my fault?!”

Paxton knew he had to backpedal, and fast.

“Look, at least it’s Josh, okay? You know him, he’s my best friend. It could have been a lot worse! It could have been Shelby!”

It was quickly evident from Steph’s expression that had been the entirely wrong thing to say.

“Oh, is that how it is?!”

“Hey, I’m just saying that’s what I could have done, not that I actually thought about it…”

“Yeah, sure,” Steph snapped, storming past him towards the door.

Paxton moved as quick as a flash to cut her off, blocking her path as he frantically tried to explain himself. 

“No, no, no, no, no, Steph, baby, don’t walk away mad at me, please, listen, just listen, okay, it’s not like that!”

Only when she’d backed him all the way up to the door itself did Steph stop in her tracks, once again folding her arms across her chest.

“Oh, it isn’t? How do I know that?” she asked, pinning him in place with her stare.

A beat of silence passed, and Paxton suddenly wondered if he’d missed something. “…Wait, what?”

“You are constantly blowing me off to hang out with Josh!”

“So?!” Paxton exclaimed. “I don’t see why that’s suddenly an issue, you never complained before! We’ve been friends since before I even met you!”

“Paxton,” Steph stated, sounding calmer but with a sudden sharp edge to her voice. “I need you to be completely honest with me.”

“About what?! What are we even talking about right now?”

“Do you love Josh more than you love me?”

The question took Paxton so by surprise, that for a moment he could only stare at Steph in shock and disbelief. Then be burst into a peal of hysterical laughter.

“Are you fucking– did you just– seriously– ohhhhh my God–”

“Oh, great, I’m glad you think this is funny.”

“What are you even on right now?!” Paxton blurted, once he’d more or less gotten his laughter under control. 

Steph just looked at him, and it was clear from her face that she’d genuinely meant the question.

“…Oh, my God, you were being serious.”

“Just answer the question, Paxton.”

“Oh-ho-ho-kay. Look. I am not gay for Josh! Okay? I have no idea how you even came to that conclusion!”

“Okay, yeah, maybe that was taking it a little far, but come on, it’s Paris, Pax! What was I supposed to think?”

“Well, geez, I don’t know, maybe something halfway logical?”

Steph sighed, turning on her heel and beginning to walk away from him again, this time towards her room.

Paxton groaned deeply, at the end of his rope. “See, this is exactly why I don’t want to take you to Paris with me!”

That stopped Steph dead in her tracks, and she whirled around halfway across the room to give him an appalled look.

“Oh, really? Why, Paxton, why is that?”

“Because you’re about as romantic as being hit by a fucking train, that’s why! You’re so high maintenance that I can’t even breathe without you telling me I’m doing something wrong! God forbid I catch a goddamn break once in a while!”

“Well, fuck, Pax, tell me how you really feel.”

So saying, Steph turned and stalked doubly fast towards her room, shoving her way past the slightly ajar door in a huff.

At that point in Paxton’s life, there were few things he had encountered that were more dangerous than Stephanie on the warpath. So, despite himself, he followed her, if anything just to make sure nothing was destroyed by her impending rampage.

He had scarcely made it past the door when he was assaulted in the form of clothes being hurled at his person, ones that he hastily caught upon realizing Steph was throwing his clothes at him, the ones he kept there at her place. 

“So what, that’s it?” he asked in disbelief.

“Yep. I think you’ve made yourself very clear,” Steph fired back, sounding shockingly calmer than before. “If you wanna go so bad, then just go.”

For a moment, Pax was shocked. He hadn’t really pictured it would go like this. Still, he knew that she was right; no sense in prolonging the inevitable.

“Okay, fine,” he conceded, carrying his things back into the living room. “If that’s how you want it.” 

Steph followed him, leaning against the door frame as she watched him stuff his spare clothes into his backpack. 

“Yeah, whatever,” she muttered. “You’ll be back.”

Paxton looked up, and something about her statement struck him as a challenge.

“You think so, huh?” he responded. “Don’t hold your breath, sweetheart. I’m going to Paris. You know how many girls there are in Paris? Fuckin’ thousands. I could have another of you in a minute.”

Steph laughed dryly. “Yeah, sure, Beyoncé, just get the hell out of my apartment.”

“In fact, why stop at Paris?” Paxton went on, walking slowly backwards towards the door. “There’s millions of girls all over the world, and I’m a single man now! Hell, after that I could go to Venice, Rio, Milan, fuckin’ Amsterdam, red light district, baby! All the way!!” His voice continued to carry into the apartment even once he was out in the hallway.

“Yeah, well, good luck finding any woman who’ll even be paid enough to put up with your winning personality!!”

The door shut behind him, with her words still ringing in his ears.

~

Pick up, pick up, pick up, Come on, Steph, please pick up.

He had no idea how she would even react. He hadn’t talked to her since their less-than-amicable breakup, and that had been months ago now. 

But he was desperate. There was no one else he could call. He couldn’t tell his family, not yet. He needed some time to process things first, and for all her faults, he could have that with Steph. 

He was pretty sure of that, anyway.

“Hello?”

Her voice almost made him jump.

“Steph, hi, it’s, um…it’s me.”

“Paxton?”

There was disbelief and incredulity in her voice, and he couldn’t say he blamed her for that.

“Yeah.”

He half-expected her to launch into a tirade at him, and he wouldn’t have blamed her for that, either. But something in his voice must have struck her.

“What’s going on? I thought you were still on your trip.”

“Yeah, uh…I am. I mean, I was.”

“…So what happened?”

Paxton sighed. “Just…some bad shit. Some really bad, messed up shit, Steph.”

“Bad how?”

Paxton had to fight to draw a breath, and he almost choked getting the words out.

“Josh is dead.”

There was silence on the other end for a moment, and he heard Steph draw a breath.

“Oh my God, Pax. What…how?”

Paxton glanced over his shoulder. Even crammed into the safety of the phone booth, he was paranoid that someone could have been watching him.

“I’m gonna tell you everything, I promise, I just…can’t right now.”

It was getting harder and harder for him to breathe, and in spite of himself tears started to string at the backs of his eyes.

Josh, Oli, Kana. All dead.

He could still see them, in the back of his head…

“It’s just so fucked up, Steph. I should have listened to you. You were right, you were right about everything. If I had just…taken you to Paris with me, none of this would have happened.”

She was silent for a moment longer, taking everything in.

“…Are you gonna go home?”

“Yeah. I mean, no. Sort of? I can’t…I can’t go home home, not yet. I’ve got some shit I need to sort out, first.”

“Okay. Okay, I get that. Jesus, Pax, I’m so sorry.”

Paxton took a deep breath, doing the best he could to collect himself.

“Listen…I know it’s not fair for me to ask, I know things ended kind of badly between us, and I don’t expect anything out of you, I just–”

“No, I understand,” she cut him off. “I totally get it. If you need to crash here for a while…you can.”

Paxton sighed softly in relief, and already he felt a little bit safer.

“Thank you. Holy shit, Steph, thank you so much.”

“Don’t even worry about it, okay? I know things have got to be…pretty awful. I wouldn’t want you to be alone.”

“God, Steph…” How did I ever let you go? “…I owe you for this. Seriously.”

“You really don’t. Come on, we can talk about this when you get here. Where can I pick you up?”

“Uh…” Paxton double-checked the folded-up train schedule he’d tucked into his stolen jacket. “…Valley Station. I should be there by ten tomorrow morning.” He’d lost track of how many trains he’d taken already, just to get from Slovakia back to the States.

“Yeah, I know the one. On the corner of Fifth Street, right?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“I’ll be there, I’ll pick you up. Promise.”

“Okay.” He took another breath. “Thank you, Steph. So much.”

“I’ll see you soon, Pax.”

Paxton needed to take a minute to just breathe, even after she had hung up. Part of him was dreading having to explain to her everything that had happened, on top of the fact that she was still his ex. That technically, she'd been right; that he'd come crawling back. But everything was different now, and no one knew that better than him. 

Maybe things would be different with her, too. Maybe he could put his life back together, not the way it was before, but…better. Somehow.

Just maybe.


	2. Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An additional reinterpretation of what could have happened at the beginning of Hostel: Part II.

Paxton knew Steph was trying. Admittedly, she wasn’t trying very hard, but he still appreciated the fact that she was trying at all.

At least, that was what he tried to tell himself. She’d been gracious enough to let him stay with her in the wake of everything that had happened, even going so far as to rekindle their relationship in the process. 

And yet, in spite of that, Paxton still felt…hollow. He knew he was still messed up about what happened, it wasn’t exactly something he could help. The meds only did so much for him. There was still something missing, a sense of emotional support that he just wasn’t getting from Stephanie.

She was still treating him like his recurring nightmares, his bouts of anxiety, his sometimes debilitating flashbacks, all of it was no more than an inconvenience. She seemed to be more concerned about the fact that he still hadn’t told Josh’s mother the whole truth yet than anything else.

It was starting to take a lot out of him, but he didn’t exactly have anywhere else to go.

Not for the first time, he was deep in these thoughts over a bowl of breakfast cereal, when he was all at once taken out of his own head by a sound. 

It was a quiet sound, and most people might have missed it entirely. But given recent events, Paxton had become hyper-aware of even the smallest of irregular noises. 

It was the unmistakeable sound of the sliding door to the balcony being pushed slightly open.

He was always telling Steph to keep that locked.

He remained stock still, not moving a muscle or making a sound as he kept listening. It became clear to him relative quickly that someone was sneaking up behind him, and that someone had definitely done this before.

It wasn’t exactly a far-fetched assumption to make that it was one of the Elite Hunters.

This was it. The moment he’d been dreading since he’d first gotten off that train.

They were there to kill him.

Like hell he was going to just sit there and let it happen.

His eyes flickered around the room as far as he could see from where he was sitting, scoping out what was closest to him that he could use as a weapon. He mentally kicked himself for opting for cereal instead of something he could cut with a knife and fork, as there wasn’t much damage he could dole out using a spoon.

Instinct won out in the end, for as soon as he sensed his would-be killer’s presence close enough to the back of his chair, he ducked down out of the way of any potential knife or bullet – holy fuck was that an axe?! – or other instrument that was being aimed at him.

He thought fast, kicking out with his leg to hit his attacker, a man clad in motorcycle gear who was definitely taller and more muscular than Paxton was, squarely in the knee and knock him off-balance. This distracted him long enough for Pax to get up, grab the chair he had been sitting on, and proceed to beat the man to death with it.

It all happened in a blur, and it took Paxton a moment to realize that the man was dead, the astonishingly large axe he’d carried discarded at his side as blood spilled from his fractured skull.

For a moment, Paxton could only stand there, gasping for breath, even after the chair had fallen from his hands. 

Then he heard a distinct click, looked up, and realized the man hadn’t been alone.

There was a dark-haired woman standing in front of him, and two thoughts immediately ran through Paxton’s mind.

Holy shit, she’s gorgeous.

Oh, fuck, she’s got a gun.

He didn’t stop to second-guess himself before he reached out with his good hand and grabbed the barrel of the gun, pointing it away from himself and using his other hand to smack her forearm with his palm hard enough to make her release her hold on it.

Within seconds, he’d reversed their positions and was now the one pointing the gun at her.

Despite the look of sheer rage on her face, she didn’t move, opting instead to stare him down with a set of mesmerizing green eyes; her hands held up as if in surrender.

“I didn’t think you’d be smart enough to take down one of my men that easily,” she hissed at him.

“Who the hell are you?” Paxton demanded, watching her closely in case she made a move.

“Does it matter?” she asked coolly in response. “I’m sure you know about my little club.”

Pax’s eyes darted briefly towards her wrist where she was displaying it, and there was the telltale dog’s head tattoo. The mark of an Elite Hunter.

“I sure as hell know they want me dead,” Paxton stated harshly, and the woman laughed.

The sound was positively chilling.

“Oh, not just them, sweetheart,” she told him. “Me.”

Paxton’s brow furrowed in disbelief.

“You don’t even know me,” he pointed out.

Her smile vanished just as quickly as it had appeared.

“I know you killed my friends,” she practically growled at him, sheer hatred blazing in her eyes. “You ran them down, like they were nothing.”

Understanding flashed across his face.

Natalya and Svetlana.

“You can say hi to them for me,” he told her.

To his surprise, she smirked.

“Go ahead,” she said, fluttering her eyelashes at him. 

With her hands still up, she took a step forward, leaning in until her face was dangerously close to the gun.

“Bet you don’t have the balls.”

So saying, her tongue darted out, almost snake-like, and she licked the barrel of the gun as if she were gong to perform fellatio on it, without breaking eye contact with him.

It he was uncertain before, that was the last clue Pax needed. She was a siren, just like the other two. The ones who had seduced him and Josh into a false sense of security.

Her mouth was still around the barrel when he pulled the trigger.

Her body fell to the floor alongside her hired hand’s, and Paxton’s hands started to shake so violently that he dropped the gun to join them.

It was the gunshot that finally woke Stephanie, and she came running down the stairs to see what had happened. She let out a scream when she saw the two dead bodies on the floor, before looking to Paxton for an explanation.

“Pax, what the hell happened?!”

Paxton’s mouth was dry, and it took him a few breaths before he could respond.

“They were here to kill me.”

Steph stared at him, open-mouthed in horror, and there was a paralyzed silence between them.

“Oh, my God, Pax…”

“I have to go.”

She could only keep staring at him, at a loss. “What?”

“I can’t stay here. Neither can you, they know where to find this house now. Go stay with your sister for a while, and I’ll…I’ll figure things out on my own.”

As he spoke, he was already headed for the stairs, intent on gathering his things that very second.

“Wait, Pax…”

He stopped on the stairs and turned to look at her, and there was a look in his eyes she couldn’t argue with.

“I’m sorry.”

In part, it was true. He was sorry for dragging her into this whole mess. But as far as leaving went, it was a lie.

He disposed of the bodies and packed everything that he needed, everything in that house that was his, that he could use, and he left.

He knew there was no choice for him now, no hope of returning to his old life. He had to disappear, not only for his sake, but for the sake of everyone who knew him.

Or at least take down everyone in the Elite Hunting Club trying.


End file.
